How do you recover files from partitioned drive?

[Guest]

This past weekend I went over to my friend's place to reformat his system and re-load all new software. He has 2 drives: 10GB and 30GB, the 30GB is partitioned in half, so I moved his files over to drive E: and ran fdisk on C: because he wanted to change the partition to a 34/66 split= 10GB/20GB, unfortunately I did not realize that the partitioned drive letters turned out to be C: and E:, I thought automatically that D: would have been the partitioned drive, but it turns out to be the second drive 10GB. So I formatted the C: and D:, but did not format the E:, in windows I can see the drive but can not access it, windows wants me to format it. I would like to restore/rescue my friend's files, do you know of a cheap data recovery program that will do this? Can anyone help?

 

[CALV]

oh dear. didnt you read the warning about all data being lost?
Theres an app called lost and found by powerquest that can recover data, but you need a seperate drive to put the recovreed data onto, and if you use the drive in the meantime, your chances of data recovery become less.


Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Toejam31]

You could try to recover the data in DOS.

Create a folder in Windows for the data, with eight characters or less in the file name. (For convenience.)

Now, open a MS-DOS window while in the GUI.

Type this, at the C:\Windows prompt:

1.) cd (space)\ and the new directory name. Hit "Enter".
2.) E:, and "Enter". (No comma or quotes.)
3.) cd (space) and the folder name to be copied. It will be trundicated, because you are in DOS. Then "Enter".
4.) Now type: xcopy (space) E: (space) C: (space) and these switches /e /c /i /q /h /r /k /y. Then "Enter".

There <i>must</i> be a space between each switch.

I'll do it again, in case there is some confusion. Let's assume that I want to copy a directory on the E: partition called My Downloads. I want to copy this folder's contents to a new directory on C: called My Files, and this folder is on the root of C: This is what it will look like ...

Open the DOS window.

C:\Windows
cd \myfile~1 (Enter)
E: (Enter)
cd mydown~1 (Enter)
xcopy E: C: /e /c /i /q /h /r /k /y (Enter)

If the files are still valid on the E: partition, this should move them. Once they are gone, delete the partition, and start over. And the next time, when running FDISK, be sure to check the status of the partitions <i>first</i>. Since all hard drives start with one partition, if both drives were on the system at the same time, it's not so unusual for the two main partitions to be C: on the Primary Master, D: on the Primary Slave, and the two additional logical partitions to be E: and F:, with E: on the first hard drive, and F: on the second. Remember, it's not the drive that is assigned a drive letter ... it's the <i>partition</i>, wherever it is located.

If you are not sure of the folder names, while in DOS, run the dir /p command to view the contents of a folder. This includes working at the root, because it is a folder, too. In other words;

C:\>

dir /p (Enter)

This will bring up a list of all files and folders in C: The /p switch is to slow down the display, so everything won't just fly by.

Note: It might be necessary for you to reboot, in order to clear the MS-DOS window.

I hope this helps you.

Toejam31

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[Bardic]

If you can throw his harddrive into another computer you could also do recover4all, very nice interface, it will work with a drive that has been formatted and re-partitioned, but some files will be lost and the more you use it the worse it gets.

 

[Guest]

Pop's helped me out, he sent me a copy of Lost & Found. THANK YOU POP'S!!!